Inevitable fall; inevitable grace

“And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.” (De 4:28 AV)

This statement is a puzzling one.  Moses is speaking his final words to the children of Israel before he dies and Joshua assumes command.  They are about to cross over Jordan and claim the land given to them by God.  Canaan will soon be theirs.  These words are in the midst of other words that are meant to encourage.  Yet the words above seem to be defeatist.  In essence, Moses is telling the people when they capture the land of Canaan, they will fall to the temptations of the nations around them.  One would think these words are not the most encouraging words which can be spoken by a leader who is about to leave them.  What follows these words is the comforting truth that they will repent from their backsliding and God will work again for them.  What Moses is doing is preparing them for reality.  It is one thing to be positive.  It is one thing to encourage the people to always believe they will do nothing but please the LORD.  It is quite another to be honest letting the people know there will be times of failure.  It is important for reality to be shared.  Giving people false hope makes them frustrated in their walk with God.

One of the great ministries of my home church what their discipleship ministry.  My home church would have home bible studies with the newly saved and train them in the things of the Bible.  They would train them in the basics of doctrine and Christian living.  I remember our leader making the statement that the things over which we gain victory in our early Christian walk will seem minor compared to what faces us years down the road.  Getting our hair cut to acceptable lengths, trashing the rock music, ceasing the gutter mouth, etc all came rather easily.  He was right.  I could never have imagined the battles that would be fought, and still are fought, thirty-eight years later.  Our leader did the same as Moses.  He warned us that not all days would be good days.  The old man was still a part of who we were and we would succumb to it more than we wished to.  The old man is part of us until the day we die and there will be times it will entice us to make choices which we know we should not.  Times of backsliding is inevitable.  To think we can live our lives in the pleasure of God’s perfect will every waking moment of our lives is a great goal.  A wonderful goal.  An inspirational goal.  A goal that we should pursue with our whole being.  But this is also a goal that will fail.  The older we get in the LORD, the fewer these failures happen.  The more mature in the LORD we get, the less likely backsliding becomes a part of our walk.

The reason for this is found in the context of our verse above.  Moses rightly warns them there will be times of backsliding.  But he also encourages them that as much as these times are an inevitable event, so too is the mercy of God.  God forgives.  God restores.  God reconciles.  And God repairs.  The reality of our failures may be hard to face.  They are for me.  What encourages the failing saint is the nature of our faithful God.  As much as I do not like to read the book of Judges, it is as much a record of Israel’s failure as it is God’s mercy.  We cannot allow the Devil to convince us that God does not wish to show mercy.  He wants us to believe there is a point of backsliding from which the LORD will not bring us back.  This is not true.  Even if we are hopelessly backslidden, there will come a time when He calls us home and glorifies this sin-sick soul of ours.  The victory is guaranteed.  He will forgive.  He will restore.  We are not hopelessly defeated.  It will happen.  But the Father is waiting for His prodigal to get so sick and tired of his sin that he desires the love of the Father over any and all other enticements.  The Father will be there!  Count on it!